Beverly Barlowe's epiphany
by bhut
Summary: It was all Allison Blake's fault that Beverly found herself driving Holly Marten back to Eureka.
1. The epiphany

**Beverly Barlowe's epiphany**

_Disclaimer: none of the characters are mine, but belong to SyFy channel._

_Note: this story contains spoilers for the official series._

Holly Marten was basically dead. Senator Wen has personally unplugged her from the VR-generator, clearly uncaring that the younger woman was going to die from the sudden and overwhelming shock to her surroundings.

But Beverly Barlowe cared. It was pointless, she knew, ridiculous, even irrational, but... it did not matter. Holly was going to die in a matter of minutes and all of Barlowe's new irrational emotions were not going to do anything.

But her intelligence could. Question was, should she? So what if the good senator proved to be more ruthless than her everyday glory-hound persona let on to believe? In actuality this meant that Beverly made the right choice – she did not want such a powerful and ruthless person as her enemy... she did not care. She did not care that Wen was higher than she in the Consortium's hierarchy was, she knew that could do something about Holly Marten situation... and she was going to.

It was all Allison Blake's fault, what Beverly was about to do. Beverly's grandfather, old Jacob Barlowe, was a humanitarian to the core, and knew plenty of stories (most of which he made up on the spot), from Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" to the Greek myths. Right now, Beverly was reminded of one of the latter stories, which stated that it's dangerous even for the stellar to look under another' skin – that other personality just might stick beneath your skin and taint you.

In Grandpa Jacob's story, Argus Panoptes, the titan-god of the starry sky, looked at the terrible satyr of Arcadia, and became as evil as that satyr. Here, Beverly suspected, something opposite might have occurred: due to her (undoubtedly, very clever) plan, she had been forced to live Allison Blake's life down to the small details, she had to _be_ Allison Blake, a completely different person, and she had to be very convincing (considering that she was uncovered in the end, she just wasn't that convincing after all). As a consequence of her being Allison Blake for a long period of time, she had to learn the principles that guided Allison Blake throughout her life, and found them to be very alien to her own.

Allison Blake once had what Beverly Barlowe had – respect, power, career... and she was quite ready to throw them away for the sake of her family and friends. It was foolish and irrational, but ever since Beverly's forceful eviction from Allison's mind Beverly found herself yearning for those values – family, friends... even if they were completely irrational.

Something broke in her fist. Beverly glanced at it.

"Oh dear."

It was ampullae of her soporific – ever since her forceful ejection from Allison's mind, Beverly had trouble sleeping... and if she was not going to save Holly Marten, then she would be having trouble when being awake as well...

Was not going? She already did, in matter of speaking! The powerful soporific would basically nullify the otherwise deadly shock from being disconnected from the VR Eureka... for the next six to eight hours... more than enough time for Holly Marten to recover... and then what? Senator Wen, even if discounting her power in the Consortium, was still a US senator; she could crush Marten even if the redhead was at her best, even if Barlowe was on her side...

The latter part was ridiculous, maybe Holly Marten _was_ better off dead, Beverly thought, and froze as a wave of self-disgust rose in her gut: she was not a saint, she was, possibly, a sociopath, but murder was one line that she could not cross.

"Thou shall not steal," grandpa Jacob said every Passover, "thou shall not kill. Thou shall not covet thy neighbour's house..." As she became older and more intelligent, Beverly felt that she had easily buried her old family values in her past – but she apparently did not, and more than that, she found the choice of going against them – distasteful.

"Ma'am, where are you taking the corpse?"

It was one of the security goons; Beverly was certain that she did know his name, but for anyone's sake she could not remember it at the moment; therefore, she just turned around and looked at him, projecting all of her confusion and all of her irritation towards that confusion at the goon. Judging by the way he blanched at her gaze, her choice was a correct one.

"I'm disposing of the corpse personally," Beverly Barlowe spoke in a voice that was probably used by the Creator when dealing with a particularly stupid angel. "Considering the fact that we recently had to move because of a mistake, we cannot afford to make another one. Is that clear?"

"Yes, ma'am!" the goon jumped to attention as if Beverly Barlowe was senator Wen or someone like that. "Sorry, ma'am! Right away, ma'am!" He froze, as he realized that he was speaking gibberish.

"Leave," Beverly said curtly, or rather, she spat the words out. "Now."

The goon made some sort of a meeping sound and fled.

That crisis solved, Beverly looked down at Holly Marten. Weeks and months of existing in a suspended animation did not do the younger woman any favors, and the soporific that Beverly gave her caused a lethargic sleep as its main effect – so right now (and for the next six to eight hours) Holly Marten pretended to be a corpse very convincingly. But then what?

"Think, you idiot, think," Beverly muttered to herself. "You get Marten out, and then what?"

There was only one answer, and it was the one Beverly hated the most.

Eureka.

"You can a scientist out of Eureka, but you cannot take Eureka out of the scientist," Beverly muttered half to herself, half to still unconscious Holly. "Marten, we're going on a little road trip."

_TBC_


	2. First impressions

**Chapter 2: first impressions**

_See previous chapter._

Holly Martin surfaced – that was the best way of phrasing it, really. She surfaced from the world of darkness that she was cast into by Jack Carter, of all people, into a world of rainbows and light, into reality...

Or was it the reality? Not so long ago the answer would have been an unshakeable yes, but lately, especially after her demise by Jack Carter, Holly was not so sure.

Slowly, Holly shifted, trying to become more aware of her surroundings. Right now, these surroundings consisted of an interior of a car, in which Holly was lying – on the back seat of a big van, to be more precise.

"That's new," Holly muttered, trying to sound sceptical, and froze: her voice sounded wrong, all scratchy as if it wasn't used for a long period of time, which didn't make any sense.

"Where am I?" Holly tried again, shifting her position in the seat – and then the pain hit.

Well, it wasn't exactly pain in its classical form – more like 1000 pins and needles, times a 1000, plus some sort of an overall body fatigue made Holly feel very uncomfortable – not hurt, more like uncomfortable.

"What's going on?" Holly repeated her question, when she saw her reflection in one of the car's rear-view mirrors.

Holly was never big-boned, or husky, or voluptuous, but neither had seen been particularly skinny – until now. Now she was skinny, and rather pale-skinned, and shorthaired – something that she never had been.

"Now this is getting worrisome," Holly confessed, when the person in the front seat of the car awoke... and the situation became even more worrisome.

/

The fight was coming to an end. The wolf (which had attacked first, really), managed to inflict several good bites upon Beverly, but the cougar's claws proved to be the decisive weapon in this battle: Beverly had flung the wolf away... but now the rest of its pack was coming upon her, their howls forewarning of their arrival.

"Now this is getting worrisome!" a somewhat feminine voice boomed next to Beverly's feline ears, and the cougar...

...woke up.

"I'm Beverly, I'm Beverly, not a mountain lion," the psychologist muttered to herself, desperately trying to anchor herself in her reality, when she noticed someone else.

"Yes, and I'm Holly," said Holly Marten, clearly unimpressed by Beverly's first impression upon her.

"I know," Beverly said curtly, not really concerned about such niceties. "I know. I'm Beverly."

"I know, I heard you," Holly nodded in reply, not really sure if she should be polite to a woman who was seriously suspecting that she was a mountain lion.

There was a pause as both women waited for each other to break the ice first. Holly was the more talkative of the two, so she folded first. "Are you real?" she finally asked, deciding to grasp the bull by its horns (or rather, a cobra by its hood, to be more accurate). "This isn't a computer stimulation, and you aren't going to kill me for figuring this out, are you?"

"No. I'm not senator Wen," Beverly said curtly.

Holly blinked. "What's senator Wen got to do with it?"

"She was the one who killed you for figuring this out."

"Then I'm dead?" Holly blinked and looked around the van – it was a big van. Then she looked at her interlocutrix, whose dishevelled hair and red-rimmed eyes made her look just as bad as Holly's own dishevelled appearance.

"No," Beverly said curtly. "You're alive."

"Good," Holly nodded, before hesitating and looking at her arm, formerly marked (or not) by the imaginary (or not) dragon. There were no marks anymore, but the arm itself was different: much paler and skinnier than before Astraeus took flight. And actually, there _was_ a mark, only one that Holly failed to notice before: a puncture mark similar to that made by an IV machine... or a big syringe.

"You know," Holly spoke after looking at the puncture mark, "there is another explanation – maybe I'm on a bad trip – acid trip. Hey, maybe that is it! I never came to Eureka, or met Douglas, or participated in the Astraeus project, but instead had some sort of a crazy mental breakdown and am currently in a cross-America trip like some sort of a mad hippie!"

"Believe whatever you want," Beverly said, not really caring about Dr. Marten's opinions, "but we _are_ going to Eureka, because that's the best place for us to be."

"Okay!" Holly said brightly. "I always wanted to see Eureka in person, and now that I saw it during the acid trip, I want to see it even more. Because if that wasn't an acid trip and Jack Carter really did kill me-"

"Senator Wen," Beverly interrupted the other woman before she could help herself.

"No, it was Sheriff Carter," Holly said firmly, but Beverly already figured out her next move:

"Look, you are already entertaining the possibilities that nothing that has happened to you for the last few months was real – does it matter so much as to who has killed you, precisely?" she asked the younger woman.

Holly Marten was a genius, and a saner genius than Beverly Barlowe was. However, her area of specialization was astrophysics, not psychology; distant stars and planets, not the human brain; plus a long period of being trapped in a VR world never helped anyone and she still wanted to consider Jack Carter her friend.

"Good point," she agreed after some thinking. "Let's get going to Eureka, then! I cannot wait to see it for the first time!"

Beverly's facial features remained impasse. To that this was not going according to plan would be a lie, because she simply did not make any plans other than some very simple ones, for a change. After all, her last complex plan left her probably crazy, so a change in her approach to plotting was in order. No, the plans were not the problem – Holly Marten was. The younger woman was simply annoying up close and personal – if she were to pay Beverly for company it would be one thing; but for free (and due to some personal ethnics), well...

...And then the patrol officer came over to them, and things became even more annoying.

_TBC_


	3. The police

**Chapter 3: the police**

_Disclaimer: see previous chapters._

"Yes, officer?" Beverly asked with a surprising (to her) placidity, when the knock on the window came. "Is there something the matter?" she asked, hoping that she was not currently channeling her inner flamingo or anything like that.

The officer hesitated. There was something strange about these two women, but he simply could not figure out what. "I just want to check your driver's license," he said politely, although he felt slightly unnerved by this encounter for some reason.

"Here!" Beverly may have decided not to make any complicated plans in this endeavour, but a necessity of a very good fake driver's ID and other papers was obvious, and so she acquired them.

"I see," the police officer took a good look at the ID and the license, and found them to be satisfactorily. "And yours, Ms.?" he turned to Holly.

"Oh, I'm not driving – she is!" Holly said brightly.

The police officer was taken aback, but quickly recovered. "Yes, well, I still to see them, due to protocol?"

"Why?" Holly was not backing down either.

The officer hesitated once again. The question was legitimate enough, and neither woman appeared to be in distress of any sort, though the one in the driver's seat continued to eye him in a strange way: as if she was some sort of a big cat and he – a hairless ape who presumed himself to be the king of the world.

"Look," the officer decided to fold, "I've got orders from the higher-ups to be especially vigilant with travellers on the road – apparently there's been a situation of some sort in the neighbourhood; so I got no choice, really-"

"We understand," Beverly said politely, "here you go." And she gave him Holly's fake paperwork. "Satisfied?"

"Yes," the officer said, after giving them a more customary glance – the younger woman was not driving, after all. Still, something _did_ catch his eye: "_Willow Rosenberg_?"

"Yes," Holly said without missing a beat – perhaps Beverly had underestimated her; given her luck with women lately, she probably did. "I'm a fan of the actress. Is that a problem?"

The officer twitched. Truth to be told, he was on his way to a greater traffic accident when he saw the car with the two women and decided to do his duty. Now, seeing how one was a potentially crazy fan of a teenage TV action show, and the other was eyeing him in a way that made him flat-out uncomfortable, period, he decided to fold and withdrew, with as much grace as possible.

...As his car gradually vanished in the distance, Beverly turned and faced the younger woman directly. "I've underestimated you," she said flatly.

"Eh, don't mention it," Holly said breezily. "Now, let's go and get to Eureka – I'm so excited to meet it for real for the first time!"

Beverly just closed her eyes and shook her head. Fortunately, they were already close to Eureka – but even such a short distance was going to be a challenge with Holly in the back seat...

_TBC_


	4. War council

**Chapter 4: war council**

_Disclaimer: the characters belong to SyFy©, "project Pegasus" – to BBC and Impossible Pictures ©._

Eureka's latest council of war (against senator Wen and whatever allies she had) had grown some: now, besides Jack, Jo, Henry, and Andy with SARAH (auxiliary members because they were machines, very intelligent machines, but still machines), there were Kevin and Zoe (previously, Zoe was out of town, but she came ASAP when she heard that Allison and the rest of the Astraeus crew were missing).

"So, what do we know?" Jack was the unofficial chairman of this meeting, as usual. He did not exactly wanted to be one, he would rather give it over to Henry, but presiding over this meeting he was.

"Wen is behind this," Kevin said brightly. "I don't know why, since Astraeus' mission success would've made her look good as well, but she is regardless of that fact."

"Not 'is', but 'is behind this'," Zoe said while sticking her tongue at Kevin: the two teenagers did not get along.

"Zoe, shimmer down," Jack said sternly. "Kevin, you raise a good point. Henry, you know the politicians the best out of all of us here – what can be Wen's possible angle?"

"I have no idea," Henry said, rather crossly. "Contrary to popular opinion, I didn't run PR for Eureka – Nathan did. That's why he took over from me... eventually."

"How eventually?" Zoe could not help but ask.

"Do not push it," Henry said flatly. "My wife is there as well, remember? Now, I am thinking about a possible angle, and the closest thing I can come up with is Project Pegasus."

"That's before our time, right?" Jack exchanged glances with the others.

"Yes," Henry nodded. "It was launched in 2004 and you came to our town in 2006. And Project Pegasus is much classified, considering that its flight didn't go very smoothly."

The others exchanged confused looks. "What are you talking about, Henry?" Jack quietly asked.

"In 2004, the US, the Russians and the Europeans – well, us and our foreign counterparts – launched the first spaceship ever designed to go through the whole Solar System and back, carrying a live crew of scientists and astronauts, albeit a small one. The flight didn't go smoothly: not all of the objectives were carried out, and some people – I think, the flight medic –died in the journey, but overall Pegasus did what it supposed to do."

There was a general pause as everyone else thought over what Henry had told all of them.

"So, Astraeus was sort of redundant?" Zoe said slowly. "But wouldn't it be easier to be told so? I mean, if anyone should be aware about this Pegasus project, it should have been Eureka-"

"As I was saying, not all objectives were met; among those, which failed to meet their mark were the excursions to two of Jupiter's moons, Io and Europa. Astraeus was supposed to go Titan, another one of Jupiter's moons, and immediately problems began..."

"Jupiter," Jack slowly said. "You're not implying that we're dealing with politicians and ex-astronauts who are being dominated by aliens from the moons of Jupiter?"

"No, I'm _not_ saying that," Henry said crossly. "Jack, maybe this situation is grave enough for you to feel a need to break the tension with humour, but-"

It was then that Holly Marten made her way inside, and she had a 'friend' with her.

"Hi everybody!" she waved a little wave and smiled a bright, brittle smile of a time-displaced hippie from the 1970s. "Jack, it's so nice to meet you for real, and not as an imaginary or virtual version that tries to kill me!"

Normally, Jack Carter would have said something to deny Holly's pointless, not to mention crazy, accusations, but he was too busy looking at Beverly Barlowe, who was standing behind Holly like a dark and solemn contrast to the (now admittedly paler) redhead.

"Just so that you know, sheriff," Beverly said in a conversational tone as she took off her dark glasses (like the Terminator; somehow she actually made them work) "I'm the crazy one here, not her."

_TBC_


	5. Settling down

**Chapter five: settling down**

_Disclaimer: see previous chapters._

"What are you doing here?" Carter demanded of his least favourite psychologist.

"Delivering Dr. Marten over here to you," Beverly shrugged. "Wen will kill her otherwise."

It was really Henry's fault that Carter had focused on Wen's name rather than on Beverly proper. "Why would Wen want to kill Holly?" he asked, half-curious despite himself.

"Because she figured out that they are all trapped in a virtual world," Beverly replied matter-of-factly. "It is already stretched because Dr. Blake made one extra person, and as soon as Wen was able to get an excuse to trim the numbers, she did it."

"And you saved Holly because of goodness of your heart?" Jack sceptically asked.

"No, because it is the right thing to do," Beverly was unperturbed.

"For whom?" Jack persisted.

"I've no idea," Beverly shrugged. "I told you that I was crazy, remember?"

Jack twitched. A brief distance away Zoe was having barely more luck with Holly.

"Hi!" Holly said brightly, before her smile dimmed a bit. "I don't know you, do I?"

"No," Zoe said calmingly, "but that's okay. I just wasn't in Eureka lately."

"Of course not!" Holly said knowingly. "You weren't downloaded in the VR." She paused. "Of course, Sheriff Carter was also my friend in the VR... until he killed me. You won't kill me for real, will you?" she asked Carter.

"No," Carter said flatly. "I won't." He turned back to Beverly. "Now-"

"Jack, wait." Henry, who has been listening to the conversations with an obvious interest, turned to the older woman. "Beverly, why are you crazy?"

"When Lupo shot me with that big gun of hers," Beverly shrugged, "the feedback from the nanites went straight into my brains and caused something there. From that day on whenever I slept I dreamt of my past lives. That was unacceptable. I started to write petitions to my superiors." She paused. "Eventually, once I petitioned them enough, my superiors acquired for me certain medicine from Asia."

"Asia?" Henry looked up. "Wen got a lot of connections in Asia, actually has relatives both in Japan and Hong Kong."

"And she is my superior there," Beverly agreed. "Makes sense to me." She paused. "Anything else before I go to jail?"

"I don't know," Henry confessed. "You wouldn't know anything to get us an advantage over your former allies?"

"Actually," Beverly began in a thoughtful tone of voice, "I have-"

"Phone call! It's senator Wen – again!" Andy called out, since he was on the phone-watching duty with SARAH. "Should I do my answering machine imitation again?"

"No, I'll answer it," Jo said firmly (she has been listening to the discussion for some time now and was getting worried), and picked up the receiver.

_TBC_


	6. A phone conversation

**Chapter six: a phone conversation**

_Disclaimer: see previous chapters._

_Note: this is not a Beverly/Holly ship, if anyone is wondering._

"Yes?" Jo spoke in a slightly hesitating voice into the phone. "Who is it?"

"Officer Lupo?" the senator at the other end of the phone line sounded actually slightly surprised. "You're back in Eureka? I thought that you have taken a leave of absence due to some personal issues?"

"I have," Jo nodded even though her interlocutrix could not see her. "But I came back for the obvious reasons – Zane is also missing, you know?"

"I do," the senator nodded, thoughtfully. "Officer, I won't mince words: the fact that Astraeus and its crew were lost on your watch _is_ a black mark against you, so I am no longer sure that you remaining in charge of GD's security is a good idea. However," the senator paused, "you're still a better officer than sheriff Carter is – I've been unable to reach him at all for the last day or so."

"Oh, he's with Henry, doing something or other," Jo blurted quickly.

"Are they now?" senator Wen's voice did not sound very impressed. "I think I will have to talk to Dr. Deacon as well, later. Right now – officer Lupo, are you listening?"

"Yes," Lupo said quickly: Andy has switched the phone to the speaker mode. "I am listening."

"Good. Officer, I am thinking of having you replace Jack Carter as Eureka's sheriff in the foreseeable future."

"Pardon?" Jo said, incredulously: she (and the others) had thought that the senator would maintain the status-quo for a while yet.

"None taken," Wen replied in her best politician voice. "For all of your flaws, you're still relatively young and inexperienced, and yet you do not tend to go on wild goose chases as Jack Carter and Henry Deacon. There's hope for you yet." The senator paused and added: "Of course, on the other hand, maybe that's not what you want – you appeared to be pretty determined to leave before, so maybe all that you still want now is to leave Eureka behind. In that case, my apologies for trying to make you stay – you are free to leave Eureka. Of course, since Eureka and GD _are_ classified-"

"Excuse me, but since when are you in charge of all the executive decisions?" Jo could not help but interrupt.

"Since the whole project Astraeus began," the other woman said flatly. "Apparently, it was a better decision than I have thought – neither Jack Carter nor Henry Deacon appear to be as competent as their reputation made them to be, and you... well, I still have several hours to set up all the paperwork, so why don't you figure out if you want to stay here or not."

"I see. Thank you, senator Wen," Jo said with more bitterness than she should have used, and put the phone receiver done. "Now what?" she turned and faced the others.

"Well, if Nathan Stark's secret cache hasn't been uncovered we could use his weapons to our advantage," Beverly shrugged.

There was a pause as everyone turned to the supposedly insane psychiatrist. "What secret cache of weapons?" Henry asked in a 'no arguments' voice.

"You mean you haven't discovered it yet?" Beverly replied, rather excitedly. "Then let me show you!"

_TBC_


	7. Nathan Stark's secret

**Chapter seven: Nathan Stark's secret**

_Disclaimer: see previous chapters._

The walk to Nathan Stark's old home was relatively short, but it was also disturbing, seeing how Beverly, for one, would not stop humming the March of the Empire from the Star Wars™ series. (When confronted about it she just shrugged and said that she was crazy.) The fact that Holly joined in did not make matters any better either. (When she was confronted about this, Holly said that she was an astrophysicist and she did love Star Wars, so the matter was dropped.) The call from senator Wen was more generic, but did not do anything good to fix the party's mood, so it was generally a sombre or potentially crazy group of people that arrived at the old home of the last Dr. Stark.

"So, what have we here?" Beverly channeled yet another past life of hers as she quickly pressed down the correct code on Stark's electronic lock, almost praying that it would work.

And it did work, as the paved front yard of Stark's household opened wide and swallowed the impromptu party whole, literally.

/

"Ouch! Where are we now?" Lupo snapped and fell silent, as electric lights automatically reacted to their movements and illuminated a large underground chamber full of very advanced technological marvels, all of which were weapon-related.

"...Okay, I take it back. I think I found the perfect place to take Zane to after we rescue him and the others," Jo said brightly, her eyes twinkling. "This is the perfect place for me to get-" She paused and looked at Zoe and Kevin.

"Actually," Holly spoke thoughtfully, "aren't you with Jack Carter? You made it a special point to rub into Allison's face once we returned from space..." she trailed off, clearly lost in her thoughts, but that was okay, since everyone stared at Beverly, who shrugged, slightly uncomfortable:

"What? It was Wen's idea. I think that the two of them make a lovely couple."

"Only because you've been impersonating Allison for several weeks," Jack growled.

"Yes," Beverly agreed. "Grandfather Jacob was right, by the way. One _cannot_ live in somebody else's skin and end up as he or she originally was. My impersonation of Dr. Blake has resulted in my insanity at her hands," she jabbed her finger at Jo, "but as for impersonating Allison Blake? I _am_ sorry."

"Fine," Jack grunted after a pause. "You may be crazy, but you did save Holly's life - presumably – and you did bring us here, where are weapons for us to use against Wen and her underlings."

"In which case, I should point your attention to this one," Beverly pointed to a large device that looked like a cross between a TV antenna and a missile launcher. "It sends an electric pulse that will knock everyone unconscious at a radius of 13-14 meters _and_ bringing the Astraeus crew out of the VR Eureka at the same time."

"Yes, but they will be like Holly, or even worse, after being stuck completely immobile for a long time," Jo said thoughtfully. "We'll still need to go there, without getting knocked out."

"Then shouldn't you be talking to the genius in your team?" Beverly shrugged, and everyone instinctively looked at Henry, who, meanwhile, was obviously busy thinking about something else, until he realized that everyone was looking at him.

"What?" he asked belatedly. "I was just thinking about Stark..."

"You miss him," Jack said, rather than stated anything else.

"Yes," Henry nodded, slightly sheepish. "I do. I know that he was not a very likeable man to most of you, especially you, Jack, for obvious reasons, but he had his good sides as well, and he and I _were_ friends, of a sort."

"What good sides?" Zoe asked after a pause. "He pretended to be Iron Man 'cause of his name?"

"Actually, on our sessions he confessed that his idols were actually George Washington and Teddy Roosevelt," Beverly said dryly. "A man could have far worse idols than two of America's great presidents, you know?"

There was a pause as everyone else thought about this. "Er, don't misunderstand me, I'm sure that we can talk about Stark at a greater length and detail later, but shouldn't we be thinking about freeing Allison and the others?" Jack asked.

It was then that Jo's cell phone rang. "And it's senator Wen, _again_," Jo confessed, her face an angry grimace. "What should I tell her?"

"I'll talk to her," Henry said firmly and took Jo's phone.

_TBC_


	8. A second phone conversation

**Chapter 8: a second phone conversation**

_Disclaimer: "Project Pegasus" belongs to Impossible Pictures™; everyone else to SyFy™._

"Hello, senator." Henry's voice had none of the awkwardness he felt earlier – rather, the scientist sounded smooth and in control of everything (and maybe he was).

"Dr. Deacon," the senator, on the other hand, did not sound particularly delighted about talking to Henry. "Am I guessing correctly that Josephine Lupo gave you her phone?"

"No, I took it first," Henry replied, truthfully. "Why?"

"Then I am correct in assuming that she isn't interested in any deals," senator Wen replied.

"Yes, you're correct," Henry assumed mildly, "and speaking of deals, what is yours, senator? The Astraeus project would've put the US mark in space-"

"The same way project Pegasus did?" came the grating reply. "Don't lie to me, Henry Deacon, I remember that you were marginally involved in it too – you were just too prominent a scientist to be kept out of it..."

"Your point being?" Henry interrupted his interlocutrix before she could go into a full-on rumble mode.

"My point?" the senator actually sounded incredulously. "You don't understand it? Very well, and I cannot say that I am surprised. Pegasus was supposed to fulfill a number of objectives, including the acquirement of materials on Jupiter's moons, the neighbours of Titan. They failed to do so. That was the US's second main stake in participating in that project, and it failed. And do you know why it failed?"

"Let me guess: because the person who was carrying-out _that _mission was a Canadian?" Henry said sarcastically.

"Now that's a Eureka scientist that I know of," senator Wen was highly sarcastic. "Always blaming somebody else. Barlowe blamed Lupo for making her crazy, while in reality she always crazy – brains in jars and what not – and you are blaming a Canadian geologist. Well, not this time, Henry. That objective failed because the geologist's spacesuit failed, and do you remember, who designed the space suits? Eureka people, Henry Deacon!"

"Oh, so it's our fault?" Henry said, failing to keep incredulity out of his voice.

"Since Eureka participated largely in designing the specialized spacesuits – yes," senator Wen's voice brooked no argument. "And considering that these spacesuits were still designed by Eureka brains the odds that they were going to fail again was far too great for liking of me and my compatriots. So we went out and prevented yet another embarrassing failure of America in space."

"You _kidnapped_ people, Wen!"

"They would've died instead, on Jupiter's moon," the senator replied, dismissively. "This way, they're actually doing what they were hired to do, for once in their childish and irresponsible lives."

"It's called creativity-"

"If it's on the government's money, it's called wasting of the funds, or perhaps embezzling, if you actually had the brains to do that," senator Wen's voice brooked no argument. "Either way, our discussion is irrelevant. It is time for Eureka to be brought to heel and actually start doing what it was supposed to do, or it will be closed down permanently. Maybe once you will stop having the taxpayers' money to finance every little pet project of yours, you will become more reasonable, Deacon." And she hanged up.

"...Okay," Jo said after a brief pause when it became obvious that no one was currently willing to break the silence after senator Wen's monologue, "this means war, I take it?"

"Yes," Henry said flatly. "It is. Also, everyone? I actually got an idea as to how we will go from here."

"We're listening."

And they did.

_TBC_


	9. Final confrontation

**Chapter 9: final confrontation**

_Disclaimer: none of the characters are mine, but belong to SyFy™._

_Note: though this work is AU, it contains spoilers for the official series._

Senator Wen was not having a good week. First, Barlowe has completely gone off the deep end, taking Marten's corpse with her for reasons best left unknown, and now Carter and his crew had finally figured out that she was behind this. It was enough to lead a woman to drink.

"Ma'am, we still having glitches even though there are only twenty subjects now," Wen's new head of technology told her via comm.-link.

"Of course," the politician muttered crossly to herself. "Barlowe's fancy machine isn't delivering what she has promised. What a surprise!"

Well, perhaps it really was not a surprise. After Barlowe's take-over off Blake's mind had failed, the psychologist turned felon turned increasingly erratic, claiming to be going insane and requiring some rather expensive (though undoubtedly powerful) soporific medicine to deal with it.

Back then, despite Barlowe's fortunes waning, the psychologist still was important enough to the rest of the Consortium to humour her, and so the medicine was given to her. (Of course, once Beverly had used to channel her inner lioness to glare at Wen, the senator was somewhat more compliant, opting not to take a chance if she could help it.)

Apparently, that did not work since Beverly's performance had grown sloppier ever since that incident – sloppy enough for something like this to occur.

"I had it with these overgrown 'genius' children from Eureka," Wen growled to herself. "Maybe it's time to pull out the plug on this project – or at least start to put the rest of Deacon's friends in their proper place." Deacon himself would have to go – he was too powerful, too arrogant in his own right to be tolerated...

"Excuse me," the current head of security approached Wen, "we've got reports of multiple military aircraft approaching us with potential hostile intent."

"Barlowe," Wen spat. The psychologist turned felon must have sold them out – either for some chimerical personal gain or because she was unpredictable and crazy. "Terminate the subjects and move out. I had it with Barlowe's master plan _and_ with Barlowe."

And then _it_ hit.

/

The first thing Allison saw once she emerged from blackness was Jo Lupo. "Keep away from me!" she yelled, becoming vaguely aware that something was wrong – like the weight on her head and the fact that she was lying prone in some sort of an environment that was most definitely _not_ Eureka.

"Um, Allison?" Jo said, keeping well away from the older woman for some reason. "That wasn't me. Wen and her allies kidnapped you and trapped you in a VR world – can you believe it?"

Allison opened her mouth, hesitated, closed and re-opened it. "Only because we live in Eureka," she finally replied, "where stranger things were made possible."

"Thanks," Jo grinned weakly. "I mean it."

/

Fargo's emergence from the VR-world was similar to Allison's, though far less hostile. "Where's Holly?" he asked, clearly worried, though somewhat disoriented as well. (Then again, this was Fargo, for him disorientation _was_ a constant state of being.)

"Back in Eureka," Jo said, more cheerfully, than to Allison. "Waiting for you."

"Then where are _we_?" Fargo asked after a pause.

"That's a long story."

"Then you better start talking," Allison said, sounding hostile once again.

Jo nodded and began to narrate about the events of the recent past.

_TBC_


	10. Epilogue

**Chapter 10: epilogue**

_Disclaimer: see previous chapters._

When Beverly Barlowe and Allison Blake met after a (relatively) long while, the meeting was not particularly happy from both sides. Well, it was unhappy from Allison's side; what came from Beverly was anybody's guess.

"So. You have saved Holly," Allison said flatly, not particularly icy, but not particularly happy either.

"Yup," Beverly nodded, leaning back in the jail cell (she was incarcerated in Eureka's county prison but did not mind). "What of it?"

"Nothing," Allison said as she sat down (outside of the cell) as well.

There was a pause. "You know," Allison said after the pause grew for too long, "I really tried to hate you after you took over my life and brain, but I couldn't. Somehow, Jack managed to make you sound too pathetic to be hateful-"

"And he's correct, unfortunately-"

"And this is just more grist for the mill," sighed Allison. "Beverly, Henry thinks – and Grace agrees with him, and _I'm_ inclined to agree with him – that you're not crazy, you just had a jumpstart of your conscience, at a long last. That, coupled with the fact that the feedback from the nanites _did_ affect your brain... yes, one can think how you can imagine yourself being crazy."

"And you're sane, but not making any sense," Beverly said flatly, but more like her old self for the first time.

"We're ready to give you a second chance, and by 'we' I mean Eureka in general, mostly," Allison exclaimed.

"Do I have a choice?" Beverly's gaze (and voice) did not waver.

"Well, yes. But you would like the other options even less than this one," Allison did not waver either.

"That's honest," Beverly said quietly, as she thought about it. Was she sane after all? Perhaps, but even in that case, the death of Dr. Marten wouldn't have sat well with her at all, so-

"It's a deal," she firmly told the other woman. "I have no idea what'll come out of it, but it's a deal."

And they shook their hands.

/

Holly was not sure if she met Fargo for the first time or not, but she did not care. There were smooches and a whole lot of heavy petting. Then they were reminded that they were in public and went somewhere more private. Then there was more than just smooching and petting.

Then Sheriff Carter walked onto them in his and Allison's bedroom and promptly walked out again, feeling rather peeved – but what happened after that was another story.

/

"Hi! I am Lucy Wen! Do you want to be my friend?" the ex-senator of the US babbled happily.

"What has happened to her?" Jack asked Henry quickly.

"Stark's invention. It has essentially lobotomized her and all of her minions – everyone who wasn't in the VR, in short," Grace answered instead. "I always thought that Dr. Stark was cold, but to invent something like this? Ruthless!"

"Yes, I always thought that Nathan had a dark side, but this is ruthless," Jack nodded. "Why is she here, though?"

"Even though she's been turned into an idiot, she was still a part of Eureka for a long while," now it was Henry who answered. "She cannot be let go just like that. For now – she stays with us."

Jack and Henry, Allison and Grace just wordlessly stared across the glassy-walled room. The ex-senator Wen, now a resident of Eureka, or rather – the town's special person just waved back at them, content and happy with her life at long last.

_The end_


End file.
